Quarterly Progress report
______
Reporting Period: 1 April 2015 – 30 June 2015 (Q2 2015)
Project title: Reducing Disaster Risks from Wildland Fire Hazards Associated with Climate Change in South Africa
Short Project title: GEF FynbosFire
Atlas Project ID: 76680
Implementing agency: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Executing agency: Forest Fire Association NPC
Project duration: April 2012 till January 2016 (project extended by 9 months)
Project manager: Valerie J Charlton
Financial position
Budget details / Source of funds / Amounts in USDTotal project budget / GEF / US$3,536,400
Budget for Q2 (Apr 2015-June 2015) / GEF / ZAR 2,745,959.04
Expenditures during reporting period / GEF / ZAR 2,713,845.90- (including R204,313.38 VAT payback)
Remaining balance / GEF / ZAR 32,113.14
Outcome 1: Capacity built at local level to manage increased incidence and extent of fires
Targets 2015:
1. Facilitate and support the establishment of FPA’s in two demonstration sites- Overberg and Cape Winelands District Municipalities
2. Develop skills and competency levels of FPA members and fire practitioners in IFM
3. Identify prospective funding sources and other mechanisms to ensure financial sustainability of FPAs in the long term
4. Role out the communications and awareness strategy for the FPAs, UFPAs and NFPA
5. Test the toolbox in Matatiele District
6. Test the toolbox in the Sarah Baartman District
Activities conducted during reporting period
- Employed a consultant to work on the potential consolidation of FPA’s in the Sarah Baartman District (formerly Cacadu) of the Eastern Cape. There are currently 17 registered FPA’s and 9 Local Municipalities
- Role out training schedule for FPA members and partners
· 1030 delegates attended Basic Fire Fighting Training in the Southern Cape, Eastern Cape and the Greater Cederberg Areas.
· 3 delegates attended Base Operator Radio Course in the Southern Cape
· 14 delegates attended Provision of Basic Wildfire Training for Estates and farms on the Cape Peninsula and surrounds
- Bought additional communications equipment for the newly established Cape Winelands FPA
- 1.2.8 Improve the communications infrastructure and equipment for FPAs
Operational Support Officers drew up and submitted individual communication and awareness strategies for each of the original beneficiary FPAs (Greater Cederberg, Southern Cape and Greater Overberg) for the remainder of the project throughout the next summer fire season ending April 2016.
Strategic planning sessions were held with each of the abovementioned FPAs and are based on the various production activities during winter, preparatory pre-fire season measures, familiarising landowners with their responsibilities and the FDI, and finally alerts and warnings during the fire season. It covers the seasonal and off-season cycle.
The formulation of these strategies forms part of the exit strategy where FPAs are now equipped with a planning tool that applies for years to come.
Cape Peninsula FPA, who only has an Extension Officer only (no Operational Support Officer) also indicated their interest in establishing a footprint in social media. An information and skills-building session was held with the officer and assistance offered with the setup of a Facebook Fan Page. FynbosFire also helped the Extension Officer to set out a strategic plan for a more goal-oriented approach – to send the right message at the right time, depending on the time of year.
- 1.2.13 & 3.1.3
Produce a FPA handbook documenting best practice in coordination the implementation of IFM in response to the increased risk of wildland fires.
Develop a wildland fire incentives toolbox comprising a suite of the most cost-effective direct financial and non-financial wildland fire incentives.
The Toolkit is well on its way with the following point of progress that can be reported:
• Handbook submitted for professional proof reading and due for desktop publication in the second week of July. The content was subject to scrutiny of industry experts after it had also been circulated for comments and further discussion by the Capacity and Sustainability working group and other partners for a period of 1 month.
• Messenger bags are already in production and due early August.
• Toggle buttons (to fasten the messenger bag flap) are being custom made by one of the FynbosFire voluntary FireWise Communities as these could not be sourced locally. It is made of wood that was collected through alien clearing activities. It supports unemployed individuals in the fire prone Goedverwacht community, which has a high rate of unemployment.
• Provincial Disaster Management showed interest in possibly contributing towards funding of the printing of additional FPA Handbooks / awareness material. This is still under discussion.
Activities planned for next period:
1. The following information will be collected from the existent Sarah Baartman FPA’s
a) 1) Number of paid up members
2) Fees structures
3) Number of trained people in basic Veld Fire Management
4) Available firefighting equipment
5) Membership of government and/or parastatal companies
6) FPO functional or not
7) Fire break agreements yes or no
8) MOU’s and with whom
9) Records of historical fires.
2. b) The FPA Handbook will be sent for desktop publishing and pending completion, go over into print. The loose-leaf folder and awareness material will also go to print during the same period.
c) USB flashdrives (already procured) will be populated with an electronic version of all the contents that go into the messenger bag as printed material.
d) The Messenger bags that are currently in production are anticipated to be delivered early in August.
e) Once the messenger bags and all their contents (USB drives, FPA Handbooks, awareness material and lever arch files with loose-leaf documents) are produced and delivered, it will go over into its final stage of assembling all the items into one final product – the Toolkit.
d) The UFPA portal design commences in the second week of July and should be live no longer than two weeks after development commenced.
e) There will be a strong focus on the development of the UFPA website as a back-end to the portal site.
f) The next FynbosFire e-newsletter is scheduled to be published by the end of August.
g) Ongoing Skills Development
h) Guidance to Operational Support Officers (OSO) in terms of generating awareness on media platforms, communication to stakeholders, partners, sponsors, general public and members.
i) Mentorship, support & guidance on an ongoing basis from a respected communication agency - available to all GEF staff.
2. Purchase communications equipment for the Greater Overberg FPA
3. Integrate findings from Capacity and Sustainability consultants and recommendations into the toolbox and FPA APOs
4. Role out Wildfire Training course schedule
5. Identify candidates for training courses
6. Send out ToR for toolbox testing in Afred Nzo District in the Eastern Cape
Issues
Type: Following Government procurement procedures has been a slow and lengthy process and has set back the project at least 6 months (this issue is applicable to all Outcomes)
Issue management: Consultants have been asked to do the required work in less time (this is being applied to all contracts)
Lessons Learned:
Delays in project implementation mean that some structures and the status quo of certain realities, as described in the Prodoc, having changed. The dynamism of a changing environment needs to be accommodated and the project should have a certain amount of flexibility incorporated into its design.
Outcome 2: Decision-support and risk management systems for fire management improved
Targets 2015:
1. Develop and maintain a metadata database for the FPA datasets
2. Install remaining and additional AWS and provide weather data for FDIs
3. Update 6 AFIS field terminals with added data layers
4. Integrate consultant findings into Toolbox
Activities conducted during reporting period:
1. The CSIR will integrate a customised version of Australis in to AFIS to ultimately run operationally in the country.
The research project will include:
a) Landgate component - R&D into the use of satellite derived hotspots, forecasted weather data and other spatial datasets for the automatic prediction of bushfire spread, within an interoperable spatial data system. This component is primarily as per the project outline you received previously from Landgate.
b) University of Western Australia (UWA) Component - R&D into integrating and/or developing fire spread models applicable for South African vegetation types within Australis, based on Australian fire spread models and South African developed research. This research would then be implemented back into Australis within component 1.
2. Weather data from already installed AWS is being made available to FPAs and other partners, certain hardware issues are being dealt with and upgraded systems will be placed in the upcoming months.
3. Contract with InterMet Africa extended and the placement of 10 additional weather stations is being discussed with FPAs to determine gap areas.
4. There is a constant flow of information between the staff placed in the FPA’s and thus sharing of lessons learned and materials prepared and used. Reports are received on a monthly basis
Activities planned for next period:
1. Negotiate contracts with landowners for the placement of 10 additional AWS
2. Awareness raised through online platforms such as Twitter and the webiste will be continued through the off season, teaching landowners and homeowners who are living on the wildland urban interface to safeguard their property and to respect the environment in which they live, and also educating them on fynbos's dependency on fire and its sensitivity to increased temperatures and unwanted wildfire.
3. Explore options for a further knowledge asset printed publication and short video.
4. Starting the development of the Fynbos Fire Hazard Early Warning Information System Portal, which will be database-driven web-enabled. Intention are to utilise the following services: web service, database service, analytical (mathematics, statistics, optimisation) service, and visualisation (GIS, 2D/3D) service. Interdependences of those services will be designed optimally.
5. Lightning and weather systems
The aim of this study would be to get more insight into lightning fires and their drivers in the Fynbos Biome.
Deliverables:
• Select examples of lighting caused fires, preferably multiple fires in close succession (i.e. within days).
• Model the relationship between these occurrences, weather systems and regional circulation patterns.
• Identify which weather systems and circulation patterns are most strongly associated with lightning fires.
6. Development of a fynbos fuel handbook
This work will focus on developing a handbook for a representative set of fynbos fuels. The proposed budget does not allow for a complete set of fuels to be characterised so the focus will be on a representative set. The contents will include descriptions and photographs illustrating different fynbos fuels. It will also illustrate fuels associated with invasions of fynbos by important alien plant taxa. The handbook is aimed at enabling land managers to assess typical fuels on their properties and fire hazard they pose. We envisage using a loose-leaf format to allow for updates and the addition of new material, and incorporation into the FynbosFire toolkit.
Deliverables:
• Review the fuel studies to date in the Fynbos Biome to locate or identify suitable photographs of the matching fynbos vegetation type or alien plant invasions.
• Identify gaps in this record and find suitable examples of the classes to sample and photograph.
• Compile a standard fuel model description and photograph set for each fuel class
• Produce a handbook of typical fynbos fuels.
Issues
Type:
1. There have been changes in legislation regarding weather and FDI forecasting
2. The budget, which was set up a few years ago, is not enough to pay for 40 AWS as indicated in the Prodoc
3. Some gap areas for AWS do not have cellular reception and are this not suitable for AWS installation
Issue management:
1. SAWS has being contracted to provide FDIs for the entire Fynbos Biome
2. The contractor has confunded an additional AWS. Stakeholders have been approached to also fund additional AWS
3. Additional funds can be put towards installing reception boosters in gap areas for AWS data transmission
Outcome 3: Innovative risk reduction interventions implemented
Targets 2015
1. Monitoring of Insurance project. Final report November 2015.
2. Wildland fire extension services increase membership in Southern Cape, Cape Peninsula and Greater Cederberg FPA. Additional extension work in the Cape Winelands FPA and Greater Overberg FPA
3. Review the current best practise in WUI fuel management measures in the Fynbos Biome and collate current available information on the approaches, costs and impacts of these measures
Activities conducted during reporting period:
- 3.2.7 – 3.2.5 Prepare and maintain a range of communication resources and media for use in wildland fire support extension services in FPAs
Two more feature articles are due for publication in Die Burger - Western Cape's biggest Afrikaans newspaper, and Agri's MARKtoe lifestyle magazine, the next edition of which will focus on Greater Cederberg FPA's district. The article (two different versions of which Overberg's is the key article) is available in both English and Afrikaans and focuses on how FynbosFire, through lessons learnt from other large FPAs, helped to establish the 'first of its kind' Greater Overberg FPA, and sharing their successes of the past fire season thanks to the technologically advanced resources and knowledge assets developed and gathered during the course of the project. The article is aimed at the largely Afrikaans audience of landowners in rural Western Cape and also serves as a fourth op-ed issue that will be printed professionally and distributed to FPAs along with the rest of the FynbosFire folders.
The end of the 2014/2015 fire season also saw the release of another edition of the FynbosFire e-newsletter with a reach of 4226 recipients.
A final bulk order of educational and awareness material will be reprinted during the course of July and distributed among the beneficiary FPAs, and also for the Toolkit.
The Eastern Cape is now also in process of establishing a district wide FPA and FynbosFire is supporting them in terms of communication lessons learnt and awareness material.
Greater Cederberg FPA's billboards are now up in various places next to public roads, cautioning passing vehicles that they are travelling through a high fire danger area and supplying them with fire emergency and the local FPA's numbers..
- 3.4.4 – The FireWise Communities Works Programme will continue to employ committee members till the end of this financial year which is March 2016, assuming they continue to perform. It was here where it became really important to get these programmes listed in their local municipal IDPs so that they would have further support. This is something FPAs would have to follow up on and the Coordinator will help with communication to have this set up. The timesheets will still be sent to the Coordinator who will submit it to Kishugu NPC’s FireWise payroll.
The last financial support the GEF Programme will give to the communities will go towards the FireWise Open Days and assisting when needed with Risk Assesments